Stopping the cannibalistic behavior of a well-studied enzyme could be the key to new drugs to fight age-related diseases, according to a new study published online in Nature Cell Biology. For the first time, researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania show how the self-eating cellular process known as autophagy is causing the SIRT1 enzyme, long known to play a role in longevity, to degrade over time in cells and tissue in mice. Identifying an enzymatic target is an important step that may lead to new or modified existing therapeutics.
“Blocking this pathway could be another potential approach to restore the level of SIRT1 in patients to help treat or prevent age-related organ and immune system decline,” said first author Lu Wang, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Shelly Berger, Ph.D., a professor of Cell and Developmental Biology in the Perelman School of Medicine and a professor of Biology in the School of Arts and Sciences at Penn. Berger also serves as senior author on the paper.
“The findings may be of most interest to the immune aging field, as autophagy’s role in SIRT1 in immune cells is a concept that hasn’t been shown before,” Wang added. “Exploiting this mechanism presents us with a new possibility of restoring immune function.”
A newly identified genetic factor allows adult skin to repair itself like the skin of a newborn babe. The discovery by Washington State University researchers has implications for better skin wound treatment as well as preventing some of the aging process in skin.
In a study, published in the journal eLife on Sept. 29, the researchers identified a factor that acts like a molecular switch in the skin of baby mice that controls the formation of hair follicles as they develop during the first week of life. The switch is mostly turned off after skin forms and remains off in adult tissue. When it was activated in specialized cells in adult mice, their skin was able to heal wounds without scarring. The reformed skin even included fur and could make goose bumps, an ability that is lost in adult human scars.
“We were able to take the innate ability of young, neonatal skin to regenerate and transfer that ability to old skin,” said Driskell, an assistant professor in WSU’s School of Molecular Biosciences. “We have shown in principle that this kind of regeneration is possible.”
Stainless-steel containers for freezing and storing bodies in super-cold liquid nitrogen at the Shandong Yinfeng Life Science Research Institute, China’s only cryonics centre. Photo: The Shandong Yinfeng Life Science Research Institute.
David Sinclair wants to slow down and ultimately reverse aging. Sinclair sees aging as a disease and he is convinced aging is caused by epigenetic changes, abnormalities that occur when the body’s cells process extra or missing pieces of DNA. This results in the loss of the information that keeps our cells healthy. This information also tells the cells which genes to read. David Sinclair’s book: “Lifespan, why we age and why we don’t have to”, he describes the results of his research, theories and scientific philosophy as well as the potential consequences of the significant progress in genetic technologies.
At present, researchers are only just beginning to understand the biological basis of aging even in relatively simple and short-lived organisms such as yeast. Sinclair however, makes a convincing argument for why the life-extension technologies will eventually offer possibilities of life prolongation using genetic engineering.
He and his team recently developed two artificial intelligence algorithms that predict biological age in mice and when they will die. This will pave the way for similar machine learning models in people. The loss of epigenetic information is likely the root cause of aging. By analogy, If DNA is the digital information on a compact disc, then aging is due to scratches. What we are searching for, is the polish.
Every time a cell divides, the DNA strands at the ends of your chromosomes replicate in order to copy all the genetic information to each new cell, and this process is not perfect. Over time, however, the ends of your chromosomes can become scrambled.
However, the progress in genetic engineering has proved that these changes can be reversed even at the cellular level, and it is possible to restore the information in our cells, thus improving the functioning of our organs and slowing the aging process.
11 epigenetic clocks have been published since 2011, but which is best for predicting aging and age-related disease? In this video, I present findings from a recent publication, “Underlying features of epigenetic aging clocks in vitro and in vivo”, that compared data for 11 epigenetic clocks, and derived a new epigenetic clock, the meta-clock.
In order to slow aging, it’s important to know how circulating biomarkers change during aging, and how these biomarkers are associated with risk of death for all causes. In this video, I discuss blood test data for the oldest old, including centenarians (100 — 104y), semi-centenarians (105 — 109y), and super-centenarians (110y+).
Breakthrough advances in medicine and better nutrition have dramatically improved the longevity of the average human over the past two centuries. But that’s not to say that some couldn’t go on to live a long life even before the advent of modern medicine. As long as they were spared by disease, wars, and other risks that can bring an untimely death, humans could live to see their 70s, 80s, and even reach 100 years old as far back as ancient Rome.
The longevity of humans is somewhat exceptional among primates. Chimpanzees, our closest living relatives, rarely make it past age 50, despite them sharing over 99% of our DNA. In a new study, researchers think they’ve found our secret: chemical changes along our genome that occurred around 7–8 million years ago when our ancestors branched away from the lineage of chimps.
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There are tens of thousands of genes in the human genome, but that doesn’t mean all of them are active. For instance, through the methylation of DNA across certain sites of the genetic sequence, genes are locked in the “off” position. These modifications, known as epigenetic changes (‘epi’ means ‘above’ in Greek), do not alter the DNA sequence itself but, rather, simply regulate the activity of genes.
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 23, 2020 (HealthDay News) — A common type 2 diabetes drug called metformin may have an unexpected, but positive, side effect: New research suggests that people taking the drug appear to have significantly slower declines in thinking and memory as they age.
“Our six-year study of older Australians with type 2 diabetes has uncovered a link between metformin use and slower cognitive [mental] decline and lower dementia rates,” said study author Dr. Katherine Samaras. She’s the leader of the healthy aging research theme at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in New South Wales, Australia.
“The findings provide new hope for a means of reducing the risk of dementia in individuals with type 2 diabetes, and potentially those without diabetes,” Samaras said.
Targeting Mechanisms of Aging Across Species — I am joined on this episode of ideaXme by Dr. Matt Kaeberlein, Professor of Pathology, Adjunct Professor of Genome Sciences, and Adjunct Professor of Oral Health Sciences, University of Washington, to discuss his research focus on cross-species mechanisms of aging, in order to facilitate interventions that extend healthspan and improve quality of life — #Ideaxme #Health #Wellness #Longevity #Aging #LifeExtension #Rapamycin #MTor #CElegans #ExtracellularVesicles #Geroscience #GenomicInstability #AlzheimersDisease #Neurodegeneration #Parkinsons #MitochondrialDysfunction #OralHealth #SystemsBiology #DogAgingProject #Science #Transhumanism #Innovation #Immortality #IraPastor #Bioquark #Regenerage The Dog Aging Project.
Ira Pastor, idea me life sciences ambassador and founder of Bioquark, interviews Dr. Matt Kaeberlein, Professor of Pathology, Adjunct Professor of Genome Sciences, and Adjunct Professor of Oral Health Sciences at the University of Washington.
Dr. matt kaeberlein researchers aging across species:
Dr. Matt Kaeberlein, is Professor of Pathology, Adjunct Professor of Genome Sciences, and Adjunct Professor of Oral Health Sciences at the University of Washington. With a PhD from MIT in Biology, and post-doctoral work in the Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, his research interests are focused on basic mechanisms of aging in order to facilitate translational interventions that promote healthspan and improve quality of life.
Dr. Kaeberlein has published nearly 200 papers in top scientific journals and has been recognized by several prestigious awards, including a Breakthroughs in Gerontology Award, an Alzheimer’s Association Young Investigator Award, an Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar in Aging Award, a Murdock Trust Award, a Pioneer in Aging Award, and the Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star in Aging Research.
Dr. Kaeberlein’s contributions have also been recognized with Fellow status in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Aging Association, and the Gerontological Society of America.
Dr. Kaeberlein is a past President of the American Aging Association and has served on their Executive Committee and Board of Directors since 2012. He has also served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology and is currently the Chair of the Biological Sciences Section of the Gerontological Society of America.
Dr. Kaeberlein serves on the editorial boards for several journals, including Science and eLife. Dr. Kaeberlein’s scientific discoveries have generated substantial public interest, with featured stories in major media outlets including appearing on the front page of the New York Times, the Today Show, CNN, the UK Telegraph, Popular Science, Time Magazine, Scientific American, NPR, USA Today, National Geographic, and many others. In addition to his primary appointments, Dr. Kaeberlein is the co-Director of the University of Washington Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging, the founding Director of the Healthy Aging and Longevity Research Institute at the University of Washington, and founder and co-Director of the Dog Aging Project.
Boxing, Business, and Well-Being — I am joined on this episode of ideaXme by George Foreman III; entrepreneur, professional boxer, trainer, coach, son / business partner of former two-time heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman, and founder of EverybodyFights, a rapidly expanding chain of high-end, state-of-the-art boxing and fitness gyms — #Ideaxme #Health #Wellness #Boxing #GeorgeForeman #Fitness #Gyms #Nutrition #Longevity #Aging #Healthspan #Lifespan #LifeExtension #Business #Entrepreneurship #Innovation #Startup #IraPastor #Bioquark #Regenerage
Ira Pastor, ideaXme life sciences ambassador, interviews George “Monk” Foreman III; entrepreneur, professional boxer, trainer, coach, and Founder of Everybody Fights.
Ira Pastor Comments:
We’re honored to be joined by Mr. George “Monk” Foreman III; entrepreneur, professional boxer, trainer, coach, son of businessman and former two-time heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman, and founder of Everybody Fights, a rapidly expanding chain of high-end, state-of-the-art boxing and fitness gyms.
George “Monk” Foreman III:
With degrees in Kinesiology and Exercise Science from Rice University, and a Business degree from Pepperdine University, after compiling a record of 16–0 (with 15 knockouts) as a professional boxer, George III went on to serve as the Business Manager of his father’s consumer products empire and Executive Vice President of George Foreman Enterprises, Inc., before venturing out on his own to start the Everybody Fights chain.
On this episode, we will hear from Mr. Foreman about:
His background; what it was like growing up in a family of 12 siblings (5 of them also named George), about his early days in running his father’s community boxing center, and his initial journey into the world of amateur and professional boxing. What was it like growing up, being trained by, and working as a business partner with his father, former two-time heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman. His journey from a big, established family business to a startup of his own to build from scratch. The expanding public interest in the sport of boxing for fitness and self-defense in people of all ages, especially the aging population. Key learnings from the world of professional boxing that he applies towards the business world.
